New Zeon Zoysia Sod Problems - Frisco
Eli Lee
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Hello,
I live in the Dallas area and I got new Zeon Zoysia sod laid down 5 weeks ago and I am noticing some issues.
I've had St Augustine before which was in very bad shape when we bought the house and the pro recommended Zeon Zoysia.
When the installer came, he did not rototill the soil. They used a string trimmer to cut down the St Augustine, raked the soil, laid some compost on the lower areas to level and laid down the sod. They also rolled the sod and fed the sod with a Iron granule treatment.
After 5 weeks, my Zeon Zoysia has not grown much and the blades are matted flat. Also I am noticing that the gaps are very wide in some areas. About 1 inch. Possibly due to shifting? Also the edges of almost all the sod squares are brown. I've been watering for 20mins per day for 2 weeks and 20 mins every other days for the last 3 weeks. Now I am on a once a week for 25mins schedule.
I've just put down a 7-18-18 fertilizer and since I am noticing some disease on 4 of the sod squares, I've also put down an application of Fungicide.
My concerns are the browning of the edges, the matted flat blades and the wide gaps between the sod squares.
Also since the St Augustine roots were not removed, I am noticing it growing back in some of the edges. Should I worry that it will overtake my lawn next spring?
What can I do to resolve these? Is this just a waiting game? Should I apply some top soil on the gaps and overseed? Anything else I should account for as we prepare for the winter?
Your help will be much appreciated. Thank you.
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Comments (10)
Eli Lee
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (8)Years and years later... I finally did it! I ended up picking Zeon. My daughter has emerald, which is incredibly beautiful, but does form thatch like crazy. The emerald is like walking on a sponge. It is wonderful. I am super pleased with my Zeon. I laid the sod in late March 2022 (in New Braunfels, Tx) , then we have had a terrible drought. I have watered it and we recently had a little rain. It is doing well, especially the areas where I did nor soil preparation. It is like a meadow in my yard....See MoreWhere to buy Zoysia Sod in Greater Atlanta?
Comments (5)I put zeon zoysia in last April. Here is a pic of what it looked like when I did it. It was about 75% green when I had it installed. Came in great. I would recommend waiting till May for the 100% green and best results though. The zeon is the best zoysia variety in my opinion. Feels super good on the feet and is very pretty most of the year. The people that helped me get it installed were from www.atlantasods.com and were very helpful. Here is a link that might be useful: Zeon Zoysia sod Atlanta...See MoreZeon Zoysia sod
Comments (2)No, no, no, no-bity, no, and no. Thank you for writing now instead of waiting until June and complaining about all the hard work and expense you went to and still don't have a perfect lawn. The only time to add topsoil is when you have a low spot to fill. If you have watering pooling up when it rains hard, then you might consider adding topsoil if there is absolutely no other way to drain the area. It could be you or previous owners have built up an area surrounded by higher soil. In that case you should move the higher soil to the low spot so you have more of a crown area instead of a low area. My house in San Antonio had an 8-inch washout years before we bought so we added soil (sand, actually). We needed it, but I'd guess that 90% of the people adding topsoil don't need it. Your existing soil is fine and can be improved with a good soil test (Logan Labs in Ohio and post the results here for a really good interpretation) and the periodic addition of organic fertilizer (not compost). Here's an approach you might not have considered. 1. Let the rye get as tall as you can stand it (tall grass grows deeper roots). 2. Spray the rye with Round Up. 3. Follow that with a week of daily light watering to try and germinate every weed seed in the area. 4. Spray all the new weeds with Round Up a week later. 5. Lay sod. 6. Water daily lightly to knit the new sod roots to the ground. 7. As soon as the roots are stuck to the ground, back way off on watering until you are watering twice a week for about 1/2 inch each time. Next year will be different for watering, but new roots need more help in the summer. Why do it like that? When you kill the tall rye all those roots will become your organic matter in the soil. There's no better way to put organic matter in the soil than with deep grass roots. Double spraying with Round Up solves the problem of the initial crop of weeds that pop up when you do the frequent watering on the new sod. This should give you a weed free start. Why not rototill? Because when you rototill it is impossible to keep the rototiller from bumping up and digging in as it moves from hard spots (roots, rocks, clods) to soft spots. The underlying 'surface' is a rolling surface. When you level the top of of the fluffy soil the depth of the fluffy is different. When all that settles it settles to the contour of the underlying surface leaving you with an increasingly bumpy true surface for the next 3 years as the soil settles. There are other reasons why not to rototill, but that's the one that causes the most long term problems. Why not add compost? Because organic fertilizer is about 5x to 15x more cost effective. 700 pounds of compost provides about the same fertilizer factor as 15 pounds of soybean meal or 20 pounds of alfalfa pellets. In my area the overall cost of compost comes out to $70 per 1,000 square feet. For alfalfa pellets the cost is $5 per 1,000 square feet. Your mileage will be different but not that much different. Your pic did not come through. Where do you live? Why did you pick zoysia and why Zeon?...See MorePlanting Zeon Zoysia
Comments (4)You didn't mention topsoil in the first message. It sounds like you might have other elements to this renovation that you might not realize are important. Topsoil is only needed if you have low spots which hold rainwater or irrigation for days at a time. If you don't need to change the drainage, then don't bring in more topsoil. Topsoil will always change your existing drainage. The problem comes if you happen to build a dam with it that prevents drainage near your house and the water backs up into your basement. I have pictures of houses where the owner has been adding "1/4-inch of topsoil every year," because someone told them to, 40 years ago. Now they have 10 inches of extra soil to deal with. If they are lucky it has been washing out. I don't need to make a big deal out of it, but you're in the southern part of the transition zone where any grass can do well. Visit Mobile next July if you want to experience some heat. In Atlanta if you wanted a northern grass like fescue, you could do that. Fescue remains green all winter but can get dry in the summer. Assuming the grass is adapted to the area, all of them need approximately the same amount of water to look green. The idea that zoysia or bermuda needs less water is a misrepresentation of the science. With no water at all zoysia and bermuda will go dormant and come back when it rains. On the other hand, St Augustine will die. But if you want any of them to look green, they need about an inch of water per week in the heat of summer. The only grasses that really can look green with "less water" are the prairie grasses like blue grama, wheatgrass, and buffalo grass. Those are extremely full sun types, though. Any shade at all and they will thin out to bare soil. My problem with most zoysias is that if/when it gets into trouble from heat, disease, or insects, and it goes dormant during the growing season, in my experience no matter what you do to it to make it recover, the grass remains dormant until the following April. That was not a zeon zoysia, but it is a concern. The other popular southern grasses are St Augustine and bermuda. Bermuda can look incredible with a lot of work. St Augustine can look pretty darned good with a lot less work. 90+% of all the southern lawns are St Aug or bermuda. The rest are a mix of zoysia, centipede, bahia, and buffalo. Rollers are necessary whether you rototill or not. The roller is used after sodding to make sure the bottom of the sod is making good contact with the top of the soil. What Tom said about the 2-step approach to RoundUp is good. I just would not rototill in between. The problem with tilling is you can never hold the tiller at the same depth. It's going to hit rocks, roots, and hard spots that cause it to buck up like a bronco. It's also going to hit soft spots and dig in deep. All that leaves an uneven subsurface that did not get tilled. When you level the surface the subsurface remains uneven. The depth of the fluffy soil in between will vary from the level surface down to the uneven subsurface. As that fluffy soil settles it will match the profile of the uneven subsurface. There are your future bumps. Pressing the soil down with a roller might help kickstart the settling process, but why go to all that cost and trouble. I would kill the surface plants as explained by Tom. Then put the sod down and roll it. Then start watering lightly several times every day to keep the top of the soil just barely moist. The roots will knit into the soil in a few weeks. Then you can back off on watering frequency and increase the depth of watering until you are deep watering about once a week. This approach saves the time and cost of rototill and new topsoil. When the zeon sod arrives be sure everything is ready and you have the needed manpower to put it down immediately. It should not sit on the pallet too long. You're going to be pleasantly surprised with the shampoo....See More
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